Magic Crawfish came together in October of 2015 at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette. The core four that started things – and are still around to this day – are Nicholas ‘Nick’ Broussard, Matthew ‘Rex’ Fanguy, James Nail, and Bailey Lanier.
The group formed like many other college bands: a few friends practicing in a room to see what would happen.
All four guys loosely knew each other, but Fanguy recalls a time in which he had no idea who Broussard was.
“Bailey told me, ‘Hey, we’re making a band, do you want to come and meet? It’s going to be me, you, James, and Nick.’ And up until the moment I opened the door, I thought it was a different Nick he was talking about,” said Fanguy.
From those early sessions eventually came Magic Crawfish’s debut single “As of Right Now,” and two years later, their debut album “Second Friday”. From the jump, the band was full of talent. These releases make it evident how well each individual works together and how much fun is had in the music-making process.
Friendship is a throughline in everything the band does. Fanguy was friends with Nail and Lanier in some capacity before the band even began – going back to the eighth grade. They are a tight-knit machine with inside jokes to boot. Broussard remembers one such joke involving the “rule of threes” that stems from those pre-band friendships.
“Three of us always did something. For example, only three of us have hair. ‘Cause Bailey’s bald. There’s crazy ones, like, three of us have sisters, but three of us are the oldest sibling, and it’s different people,” says Broussard, “But, I guess, three of us met before the band started.”
Over the next few years, the band played more into this rule of threes by dropping three loose singles “Solstice”, “Ampers&” and “All Up!”. Through these tracks the band diversified their sound in new ways.
If pressed to pin down specific influences, the group points to blues artists Tab Benoit and modern rock bands like Kings of Leon and the Red Hot Chilli Peppers. Broussard believes the best thing about their process though is that they do not sound like one or the other. The band’s constantly diverse taste in music bleeds directly into their ever-changing style.
“We’re not all listening to the exact same band, like, worshipping the same band. I think that’s what is really cool about it all because we’re all responsible for our own parts,” explains Broussard. “I write my parts, Rex writes his parts mostly, Bailey writes his parts mostly. What’s really cool is that all of our songs are really a mosaic of all the artists that we listen to.”
At this point one might wonder “what is a Magic Crawfish?”
Broussard credits the name to the bands friend and former manager Blaze. Blaze had heart problems as a child and at one point died during surgery. Luckily, he was revived and the surgery was a success.
When he turned 18, Blaze got a tattoo on his chest to honor his new heart. According to the band, this realistic heart tattoo with bits of metal in it looks akin to a certain mud-fairing crustacean from a certain distance.
“The funny part is that when you look at it from far away, it looks like a crawfish. And so the joke became that a magic crawfish had saved Blaze’s life,” says Broussard.
Most recently, the band released a new single, “Red Bluff,” at the end of January. The track is their most energetic yet, calling back to pop-punk bands of the late ‘90s and early 2000s.
The band promises these infectious vibes will continue with their new album due out in June. It is said to be full of “Big Summer Tunes” and a much higher production quality.
The group also brought on a new member, David Crochet, a classically trained drummer like the rest of the band. Working with their new member and the amazing crew at UP/DOWN Studios has been a new experience for the band.
Recording engineer Eric Holt has influenced the band’s approach to their sophomore album immensely. The professional studio setup has allowed for creative experimentation, resulting in songs that may be difficult to fully replicate live.
“We were very much open to whatever the engineer had to offer. The second that we started recording the first song there, it blew our minds. The second that he hit play, after we recorded the first one, we were like, ‘whoa, what the s**t!,’” said Broussard.
“‘How much more can we shove in these songs?’” added Fanguy.
Magic Crawfish hopes to make it to Baton Rouge soon as they say they are working to schedule a show in mid- to late spring. The band is also set to appear at the 40th Anniversary of the Festival International de Louisiane, where they have played the last two years.
“We always play this big after-party downtown, hosted by the Keaty Real Estate firm, and that’s always one of our favorite shows of the year,” shares Broussard. “Huge after-party at this really fancy Airbnb, it’s outside. It’s a good time.”
In the meantime, fans can keep up with Magic Crawfish on the band’s website or Instagram.
‘ The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties ’
‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source lsureveille.com ’
